Movie Review - To Rome with Love

To Rome with Love (2012)

Starring Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Begnini, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Allison Pill, and Ellen Page

Directed by Woody Allen

There's part of me that's happy that Woody Allen somehow manages to still make a film a year.  [Trivia tidbit:  1981 is the last year he hasn't had a film released...that's a shocking feat.]  Even if his previous one was a clunker, producers still shell out the money for the 77-year-old auteur to write and direct.  Coming fresh off the heels of his biggest financial success in decades Midnight in Paris (a film which I didn't fawn over nearly as much as everyone else), Allen sticks with the European travelogue motif he's explored as of late jetting off to Italy in To Rome with Love.  Admittedly, I was a bit surprised that this venture is comprised of four completely separate shorter films that Allen edits by intercutting them scene by scene.  I initially thought the storylines would come together, but they don't.  Instead, it's four incredibly simple plots that happen to take place in Rome, but never once glorify it or paint the city in the same adoring light in which Allen viewed Paris in his last film.  And, rather unfortunately, none of the stories prove to be engaging enough to make you want Allen to head back to them as soon as he switches to another tale.

The film opens with Hayley (Allison Pill), an American visiting Rome alone, soon after graduating college.  When she gets lost one day, she asks an Italian hunk named Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) for directions and the two immediately hit it off, finding themselves engaged after a very short time.  Hayley's parents Jerry and Phyllis (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) make the trek over to Italy to meet Michaelangelo and his folks.  Jerry was a former music executive and happens to hear Michelangelo's father Giancarlo (Italian opera singer Fabio Armilato) singing in the shower causing the American to concoct a crazy idea to make this singing funeral home owner into an overnight operatic sensation.

We then meet Leopoldo (Roberto Begnini) in his ho-hum, boring desk job.  He's got a wife and kids whom he loves, but he lives a life of very little excitement until one day out of the blue, Leopoldo begins to be followed around by paparazzi.  They track his every move and he becomes an instant celebrity throughout Italy.

There's also a newly married Italian couple Antonio and Milly (Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi) traveling to the big city so the husband can try his hand at filmmaking with his inside-the-industry relatives.  However, when Milly leaves their hotel room to get her hair done, the voluptuous Anna (Penelope Cruz) arrives -- a prostitute who has been sent to Antonio's room by accident. When Antonio's relatives (who had never met his new one) barge into the room while Anna is beginning to work her magic on Antonio, the young Italian is forced to pretend that Anna is his wife, much to his chagrin.

Finally, there's another love story, this one involving Americans Jack and Sally (Jesse Eisenberg and Greta Gerwig) who are living in Rome while Sally attends college.  When Sally's friend Monica (Ellen Page) comes to visit from the States, Jack begins to fall for her despite his best efforts.  The supposedly funny bit here is that Jack seemingly has a sometimes-visible self conscious in the room with him in the form of Alec Baldwin who tries to steer Jack in the right and moral direction.

On their own, the individual films may have been cute for about ten minutes a piece, but each is unfortunately drawn out to seemingly interminable lengths.  While the film only runs two hours, all of the stories felt like they could have wrapped up much quicker and the movie would've worked a lot better with much trimming.  It isn't exactly helpful that the acting is simply okay with much of the talent (Eisenberg, Baldwin, Allen, Begnini, Page) simply playing characters we've seen them play before...in better movies.

So, despite the fact that Woody Allen continues to get the dough to make his films, maybe that money could be better spent elsewhere so Allen could take a little bit of a breather to better organize his thoughts.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+